


Hypnagogia

by Merrinpippy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Peter Pan Fusion, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Fairy Tale Elements, Gen, Harry's not too young but he's still a kid, M/M, Pre-Slash, i got spoiled for ouat from the drop down menu of tags, i'd like to point out the sacrifice i've made for this fic, there's a reason it's only pre-slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 03:00:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13801980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merrinpippy/pseuds/Merrinpippy
Summary: A shadow of a boy appears in Harry's closet one night, and for better or worse, brings a spirit from Neverland to Harry's door.





	Hypnagogia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rosemachine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosemachine/gifts).



> This fic was entirely inspired by my fave so I dedicate it to her lol. I should be sleeping.

He was awake in the middle of the night, tossing and turning on his uncomfortable cot under the stairs. That was the only reason he saw it, initially. 

A shadow. Darker than the gloom that surrounded him. A shadow of a boy. Harry stared at it for a few seconds and then sat up, looking around for what could be causing it- the only reason he could see at all was that his eyes had adjusted to the lack of light, so there was no way a shadow could be there, never mind a shadow of a stranger.

And yet. Perhaps he had fallen asleep after all…

Without breaking his stare, he reached over for his glasses and slipped them on. It didn’t help him see much, but his movement got the shadow’s attention: its head turned, and Harry got the impression it was looking at him. Unsure what was the proper thing to do when confronted with a living shadow, Harry waved.

It stayed still for a moment, before giving a smaller wave back. It then brought its finger to its mouth in a shushing motion. Why were they being quiet? Harry wondered but didn’t say this aloud, not wanting to upset the shadow person now hiding out in his closet with him. Sorry it’s so small, he wanted to say too, conscious of his itty bitty living space (he’d watched Aladdin the other day by pretending to do the dishes while Dudley watched it). 

After a few moments of surreal silence where the shadow moved just often enough to convince Harry not to go to sleep, there was an unusual noise. A slight grating sound coming from the living room. A window opening, and the slippery sound of someone coming inside. 

Harry was most certainly awake now. He contemplated getting out of bed and confronting the intruder, or at the very least getting Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon to do it for him, but he was stopped by the shadow’s frantic insistence that he stay still and quiet. 

Hiding from the intruder, Harry realised. The shadow was hiding from whoever had just come in through the living room window. 

There were no footsteps, but soon Harry could make out the sound of someone breathing, getting closer and closer. 

“Come now,” a stranger’s dark, velvety voice spoke into the silence. “I grow tired of this little  _ game  _ of yours.”

Harry winced at how close the voice was to his door- surely if he could hear the intruder breathing the intruder could hear him too- but found himself taken by curiosity. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but if Harry had to guess by the sound of his voice, he would bet that the shadow in his closet belonged to the boy outside. 

“Oh dear,” the stranger said, making Harry jump again. He was  _ right outside  _ this time. Harry found himself edging away from the door. “Have you really resigned yourself to hiding in a closet?” 

The sliding latch scraped open somehow, without anyone even touching it, and then the door swung outwards, revealing… a boy, slightly older than Harry but still not yet an adult, with dark brown wavy hair and a handsome, angular face. A face which, in this moment, was very much taken by surprise as his eyes fell on Harry.

“... Oh.” Was the first thing he said to Harry. 

Harry, ignoring all feelings of  _ danger  _ and  _ handsome  _ crossed his arms. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said. 

The boy recovered quite quickly, raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms as well. “Oh really? And why not?” 

“Because this isn’t your house and no-one invited you in. That’s breaking and entering. It’s against the law.” Harry said this with the confidence of one who’d had an assembly talk from the police a few weeks prior, along with the rest of his school, about breaking the law. They hadn’t said so at the time, but Harry strongly suspected that Dudley and his gang were part of the reason why. 

The boy smiled at him coolly. “I didn’t break anything,” he said. “And anyway,  _ you  _ look like the one who shouldn’t be here. What’s a boy like you doing in a closet like this?” 

“I live here!” said Harry, jutting his chin out crossly. 

The boy’s expression flickered. “You... I meant this  _ closet.  _ Learn to listen.”

Harry frowned with distaste. “You’re the one who needs to listen. I. Live. Here. See? This is my bed, and those are my toys. Now if you excuse me, I was just trying to get to sleep, so if you could get out now  that would be n-”

He didn’t get to finish; the boy grabbed him by the arm and wrenched him from the closet, looking him up and down, seemingly displeased with what he saw. Harry felt himself blush self-consciously. 

“You don’t live the happiest of lives, do you.” It was a statement rather than a question, loaded with an undertone of something Harry couldn’t place.

Harry didn’t answer. It was answer enough.

There was something strange, something manic and hungry in the boy’s eyes as he continued. “You’ve had your childhood stolen from you. That is something I cannot abide. But what if I told you that there was somewhere we could go, somewhere I could take you where you’d never have to see your family again? A place where you could have your childhood again, have everything that was taken from you?” 

The boy’s face had grown more pleasant as he’d spoken, and it struck Harry that he might not mind spending more time with him, intruder or not. He opened his mouth to speak again but a sudden movement distracted him- the boy’s shadow on the wall, waving his arms about and shaking his head violently. 

The boy noticed his shift of gaze, and looked behind to where the shadow had gone stock still like a deer in the headlights.

_ “There you are,”  _ the boy hissed, taking a step towards the shadow, but Harry, fast as he was, darted between them.

_ “Now hang on!”  _ he said, and to his credit the boy did indeed freeze in his tracks, staring at Harry open mouthed. “Never mind being afraid of your own shadow- your own shadow is afraid of you! You ought to treat it better, then it won’t go flying away into other people’s houses and waking up boys in their closets!”

The boy’s expression shifted slowly into amusement, and then into something calculating. “What was your name again?” 

Harry frowned. “Harry Potter,” he said, putting a certain amount of contempt in his voice to indicate his disapproval. “What’s yours?” 

The boy licked his lips before he spoke. “Tom Riddle,” he said. It sounded like a name from a fairytale, someone who went on dashing adventures with pirates and knights and princesses- though Harry could never really understand the appeal of that last one. “Shadow… oh, shadow can stay with you if he likes. But I’d quite like  _ you  _ to come with  _ me.”  _

Harry took a little step back and the sheer danger… the sheer appeal of his tone. Tom tracked the movement. 

“Where would you take me? Not going to offer me candy from a white van parked outside, are you?” 

Tom’s brow crinkled in confusion. Harry wondered how someone who seemed so in control and knowledgeable didn’t understand such a simple reference. It was kind of cute, in a weird sort of way. 

“No,” Tom eventually answered. “I would take you to Neverland, of course.”

Harry blinked. “Neverland? What’s that?” 

Tom smiled. “A place where dreams come true, Harry. I wonder what your dreams are, hmm? You could do anything you wanted, and you’d never grow old. Well, you’d have to do one small thing first, but I’d help you the whole time. Your muggle family would never hurt you again.” 

That all sounded nice, Harry supposed, but- “What’s a muggle?” 

The smile turned smug again. “Anyone without magic is a muggle, Harry. But even if you don’t have magic, there are things you can use to give you a leg up, so to speak… I’ll show you everything when we get to Neverland, I promise.” 

Harry thought about this, and then thought some more. Eventually he gave a resigned sigh. “I’m dreaming, aren’t I,” he said. 

The shadow chose this moment to intervene, and really, the moving shadow should have been his first warning. The shadow put itself between him and Tom, nodding its head vigorously and making shooing motions as if to guide Harry back into his closet. 

“Don’t be stupid,” Tom said irritably, and then he turned towards his shadow and hissed,  _ “sew yourself back on or I’ll slice you up and feed you to the thestrals.”  _

Harry jumped, eyes wide. “You’ll  _ what?!  _ Is that why it’s so scared of you? If you’re going to say things like that you can say them  _ away  _ from me and my closet, thanks. At least when the Dursleys say things like that they say ‘we’ll sell you to gypsies’ or something. It’s your own shadow, for goodness’ sake.” 

Harry did, then, step back towards his closet. The shadow followed him. 

“I wish  _ my  _ shadow was alive,” Harry said. “I wouldn’t take a friend like that for granted.”

The shadow crossed its arms and nodded sharply.

Tom, however, didn’t look surprised at his outburst this time, but instead fixed him with a calculating stare. “Are you telling me that you understood everything I’ve said thus far? Every word?”  

Was this a trick question? “Yes?” 

There was triumph in Tom’s eyes now. “Oh Harry…” he crooned. It sent a thrill down Harry’s spine. “It looks like you’re not a muggle after all. Oh, I have much to teach you.”

“What are you talking about?” Harry asked. And then, “Maybe I don’t want you to teach me anything.”  

Tom took a step towards him, his glinting eyes locked on Harry’s. “I had to check, to make sure… but normal people don’t understand that. It’s a secret language. One only magic people know. That means you’re special, Harry… I think we were meant to meet tonight. I think you’re meant to come with me.”

Harry bit his lip. What did he have to lose? But also, how could he follow this stranger? Magic… he would so love to believe it was true, but didn’t he think he was dreaming a few seconds ago? But then, if he  _ was  _ dreaming, he didn’t have anything at all to lose by going with Tom, because he’d just wake up…

“I can make your shadow come to life, if you truly want,” Tom said softly, enticingly. His gaze flickered to Shadow.  _ “Bella will be down soon, I’m afraid I left her rather alone when I realised you were gone. Show her where we are, won’t you?”  _

Reluctantly, Shadow left his side and was gone, through the living room and (Harry assumed) out the window. That left Tom and Harry alone. 

Tom refocused his attention on Harry. “You know, you wouldn’t even need a living shadow.  _ I  _ could be the friend you so desire.” He smiled sweetly, like an angel, or perhaps a fairy. “Would you like that, Harry? You and me?” 

Tom held out his hand towards him. Time seemed to stop, and Harry was aware of just how out of place this boy was. Even the dust around him seemed to sparkle. It was… enchanting. Cautiously, Harry took the offered hand. Triumph flashed in Tom’s eyes and he grinned; suddenly, like a breath of fresh air, everything felt like it was going to be happy again. Tom would never let the Dursleys touch him again, and he could be young with Tom forever. Harry smiled.

A flash behind Tom distracted him. 

“What’s-” 

“Oh, that will be our ride,” Tom said, bending to kiss Harry’s hand before shifting his grip on it to guide him into the living room. “You may not be a muggle, but you certainly can’t fly yet. Bella will help with that.” 

“Will I need to pack?” 

Tom scoffed. “Is there anything you really want to take with you?” 

Good point. Not really. 

“Alright Bella, come out and meet our newest addition. His name is Harry. He can speak  _ parseltongue.”  _ Tom grinned, and something flashed again by the curtains, whose colour still managed to look ugly in the dark. And then it came out. A glittering, flying… thing. 

“Bella’s a moth?” Harry said, almost despite himself. Tom began to laugh, but the flying thing zoomed over to him, so close that he could see it was actually a grumpy-looking, dark-haired  _ girl.  _ With  _ wings.  _

She pouted at him angrily and reached for his glasses, blurring out of his vision. A small rip, and then they were falling from his face in two pieces. Harry rushed to catch the pieces but Tom was faster, catching them with one hand and letting go of Harry to catch Bella by the wing. Bella went very still.

“Naughty,” he said, his voice laced with warning. 

He closed the glasses in his fist and held it out to Harry. When he opened his hand, the glasses were whole-  _ new- _ looking, even. Harry put them on with shaking fingers. 

“Your moth doesn’t like me very much,” Harry said quietly. 

Tom smirked. “Not fond of strangers, this one. But don’t worry, you’ll be good as family very soon. Bella, would you do the honours?” He let her go and she shook herself, glaring at Harry before zooming off again. 

Sparkles rained on him, and he looked up to see Bella flying in circles above him. But now he felt… lighter, somehow. 

“What’s happening?” he asked, but Tom was pulling him forward before he’d finished. He snapped his hand and the window shattered. Harry didn’t have time to tell him off before Tom urged him to jump from the window sill, and he did- he just didn’t land. 

He was flying. 

He gaped at Tom, who grinned back. “Come, hold on to me and we’ll be in Neverland soon.”

And with that they rose, and rose, and though it was cold Harry couldn’t find it in himself to mind as Surrey disappeared below them. Of all things, he was… rather sleepy. 

“Very soon, Harry, very soon,” Tom whispered. His vision blurred, and he was tired, so very tired. Tom’s voice was in his ear now. “Hush. We’ll be there soon, and I’ll take care of you… sleep now.” 

The Dursleys never reported him missing.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! Feel free to leave a comment or find me on tumblr @merrinpippy :)


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